24 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



and whale ; the Fuegians subsist largely on seal and porpoise ; 

 and the Indians of the Pampas for many months in the year 

 cannot obtain other food than fish. 



It is generally believed that the inhabitants of the tropics, and 

 more particularly, perhaps, the Hindus, are practically pure 

 vegetarians. This is by no means the case. In India and in the 

 torrid zone generally the natives eat largely of cereals, fruit, and 

 vegetables, and many of the poorer classes cannot afford other 

 food ; on the other hand, where any form of animal diet is pro- 

 curable or can be afforded, except the flesh of animals forbidden 

 by religious customs, it is greedily and readily seized on and 

 devoured. Even amongst the so-called vegetarians of India 

 milk and eggs are always allowed ; many also eat fish, and some 

 conform their vegetarian principles to the occasional presence of 

 chicken or goat's flesh in their dietaries. 



In a densely populated country such as India, the mass of 

 the inhabitants have got to live on the cheapest food procurable, 

 which in a country not yet thoroughly opened up is usually the 

 home-grown products, consisting largely of cereals, fruits, and 

 vegetables. They are vegetarians by force of circumstances only, 

 and readily avail themselves of every opportunity of increasing 

 their assimilable protein intake by the addition of most forms of 

 animal food to their diets. The craving for highly nitrogenous 

 food, and particularly that of an animal nature, was well brought 

 out during some feeding experiments on prisoners in Bengal, 

 when the promise of meat, or the threat of withholding it, was 

 quite sufficient to induce the prisoners to carry out without a 

 murmur whatever duties had been assigned to them. In the 

 less densely populated districts of Bengal, where there is not the 

 same necessity for the extensive cultivation of the land and pro- 

 duction of vegetable foodstuffs, animal food of all kinds forms 

 quite a fair proportion of the diet. Thus the aboriginal races 

 inhabiting the hills of Chota Nagpur eat all kinds of flesh, 

 including that of rats, jackals, snakes, lizards, and other animals. 



The Hindu cannot, therefore, be accurately described as a 

 vegetarian by instinct. On the average, doubtless, his diet contains 

 considerably less animal matter than the mixed diets that are 

 customary in the temperate zone, but this is entirely due to his 

 inability to obtain the meat he craves for, and not to any subtle 

 promptings of Nature warning him against the evil that may 

 result in a torrid clime from a liberal protein dietary. The fact, 

 indeed, that animal food should be so much desired and, when 



